The Federal Court in Australia has agreed to Apple's request to a preliminary ban on sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the country, providing the iPad maker with yet another victory in its tense legal battle against its rival.

Justice Annabelle Bennett ruled on Thursday that Apple had presented sufficient evidence of alleged infringement by Samsung on two of its touchscreen- and multitouch-related patents to issue a preliminary injunction, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. The suit will proceed to a full hearing, but, even if Samsung prevails, it will have lost valuable time in the tablet market.

The South Korean electronics maker had previously agreed to delay the launch of its tablet in Australia while awaiting the decision. The company told the court last week that missing the Christmas season due to a preliminary injunction would cause it to give up on releasing the Galaxy 10.1 in the country because the device would be "dead" by the time it launched.

Late last month, Samsung offered Apple a compromise deal that would allow the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to launch with minor concessions. But, Apple rejected the offer, opting instead to take its chances with its preliminary injunction request.

Apple's win in Australia follows a victory with a German court in September that permanently banned sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 there.

The legal dispute between the two companies has grown increasingly fierce since it began in April of this year. Apple struck first, accusing Samsung of "slavishly" copying the look and feel of the iPhone and iPad. According to the Cupertino, Calif., company's attorneys, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs personally attempted to resolve its issues with its rival in 2010, but negotiations proved unsuccessful.

Samsung has said it initially held back in its legal action against Apple because it also doubles as a supplier for its rival, but the company vowed last month to be "more aggressive" in its disagreement with iPhone maker. The electronics maker has said it is attempting to block sales of the as-yet-unreleased iPhone 4S in France and Italy.

An prime example of what would happen if you attempt to cross Apple. Almost a year ago Steve Job's tried to talk to Samsung about its design issues, but nooooo. Several banned devices later Samsung is thinking at least we supply Apple ram 8 billion dollars in the ban... What? They did what. Awww dammit!

It would have been a great loss for consumers if the pirates ripping off legitimate i.p. weren't punished for their thievery. It would have put a chill on innovation. Good on you, Australia!

I tend to agree with the ruling in this case. It was actually touch-screen related patents at issue, not stupid look-and-feel crap arguments, and it seems to me that Samsung actually infringed.

I think the rationale behind your assertion for protecting "legitimate IP" is fairness.
And for that, I want you to think about this.

Apple just "copied" the other OS's notification system, and implemented a less versatile one at best.
And, I don't think Android's open sourced functions are protected under the law, unless Apple literally takes the code and copies the logic.
Then who is legally entitled to sue Apple?

The patents/copyrights systems have flaws and Apple is taking those flaws at their own advantages.
They argue that their copyrights and patents should be protected, yet they are free to copy whatever that is good on the market that has not / or cannot be patented (as in the above example). Maybe it is a clever move, but doing so is threatening the whole notion of fair and open market competition.

I just hate Apple abusing the legal system, and FFS, a tablet design should have been held as a generic design that would not be easily protected under Community Design.

Community Design would protect Coke's unique glass bottle design, but would probably not protect SONY's TV design.
Which side do iPad and GTab fall into? To me, they are more like TV designs that are similar but have distinct features. (e.g., form factor, aspect ratio, default orientation, OS, choice of materials, back case design, and placement of cameras)

Note that this injunction wasn't granted based on some "rounded rectangle" and "look and feel" crap Apple successfully pulled off in the German Court. But rather on some two touch screen gesture-related patents Apple hold which is probably similar to the one upheld by the Dutch Court.

In a place I like to call "reality", this is great for consumers because it's sending a message to Samsung to get off it's cloning a$$ and actually start developing and innovating their own stuff instead of shamelessly copying others.

You may not believe it, but I've come across countless of clueless joe-consumers that think iPads and their counterfeit companions are one and the same. Sad but true. Companies ripping-off Apple not only tarnishes Apple's brand-image, but it tarnishes the tablet market in general when consumers get ticked-off that their "Just as good as an iPad, if not better" tablet doesn't live up to their expectations.

I think it's important to have strong IP protection. I was grateful to see Australia included in the first round of iPhone 4S rollout, even though we are a relatively small economy.

On the other hand, it's not realistic to simply abandon a country with lax laws, such as Google did with China, if that country also has a large market.

I think the balance is: when a device is new, roll it out only in protected areas. But after some time it will lose it's newness and mostly have been copied anyway, at that point you have nothing to lose by rolling it out in unprotected areas.

I just hate Apple abusing the legal system, and FFS, a tablet design should have been held as a generic design that would not be easily protected under Community Design.

Community Design would protect Coke's unique glass bottle design, but would probably not protect SONY's TV design.
Which side do iPad and GTab fall into? To me, they are more like TV designs that are similar but have distinct features. (e.g., form factor, aspect ratio, default orientation, OS, choice of materials, back case design, and placement of cameras)

Take a look at tablets designs BEFORE the Ipad and you will see how your little reasoning there makes NO sense.
Hello earth? Before the Ipad there was no tablet market to speak off, nothing looked remotely close to the Ipad. And now? Samsung did a 360 on their own old designs to clone a successful product. Who is "abusing" the patent system ? How is that "innovation" ? Which company should be protected and encouraged to continue bringing NEW products out?

Take a look at tablets designs BEFORE the Ipad and you will see how your little reasoning there makes NO sense.
Hello earth? Before the Ipad there was no tablet market to speak off, nothing looked remotely close to the Ipad. And now? Samsung did a 360 on their own old designs to clone a successful product. Who is "abusing" the patent system ? How is that "innovation" ? Which company should be protected and encouraged to continue bringing NEW products out?

you were saying?

and Samsung didn't do a 360 (I'm sure you meant 180) they made a thinner model to compete with the iPad...why is that wrong?

why is it that now that Apple is the market leader any company adapting their model and products to better compete with Apple is "STEALING" ?

First people are shocked Android changed it's looks (not it's function btw as it could always work on full touch devices even while it look blackberryish) to compete with the iPhone despite all the signs that that was the future of smartphones

And now people are shocked when people use the age old rounded rectangle design when they make tablets (or phones)

It's crazy.

PS. the Galaxy Tab wasn't banned in Australia due to looking like anything...there were 2 software patents it violated...so your argument is flawed from the start

and Samsung didn't do a 360 (I'm sure you meant 180) they made a thinner model to compete with the iPad...why is that wrong?

why is it that now that Apple is the market leader any company adapting their model and products to better compete with Apple is "STEALING" ?

First people are shocked Android changed it's looks (not it's function btw as it could always work on full touch devices even while it look blackberryish) to compete with the iPhone despite all the signs that that was the future of smartphones

And now people are shocked when people use the age old rounded rectangle design when they make tablets (or phones)

It's crazy.

PS. the Galaxy Tab wasn't banned in Australia due to looking like anything...there were 2 software patents it violated...so your argument is flawed from the start

What are those two software patents? It seems too harsh to ban the GT just before holiday season over software related patents. Absurd software patents over monopoly? Poor Ausies, they got screwed again.

What are those two software patents? It seems too harsh to ban the GT just before holiday season over software related patents. Absurd software patents over monopoly? Poor Ausies, they got screwed again.

Australia the land of the $2 Galaxy S 2 about as good as a $3 watch.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1v was sold here with no problems, that was the model Samsung did a 180 on as soon as they saw the iPad 2.

Samsung's paid shills seem to be popping up everywhere, their astroturfing budget must be huge.

It's really getting...

...quite

...boring.

Better than my Bose, better than my Skullcandy's, listening to Mozart through my LeBron James limited edition PowerBeats by Dre is almost as good as my Sennheisers.

What are those two software patents? It seems too harsh to ban the GT just before holiday season over software related patents. Absurd software patents over monopoly? Poor Ausies, they got screwed again.

I'm about to check groklaw and Foss. No one I read yet specified them.

Take a look at tablets designs BEFORE the Ipad and you will see how your little reasoning there makes NO sense.
Hello earth? Before the Ipad there was no tablet market to speak off, nothing looked remotely close to the Ipad. And now? Samsung did a 360 on their own old designs to clone a successful product. Who is "abusing" the patent system ? How is that "innovation" ? Which company should be protected and encouraged to continue bringing NEW products out?

Wrong.

I think you need to learn what is a trend.
I can prop as much as you'd be pleased about the fact that Apple leads a trend in industrial design: minimalistic and yet premium look and feel.

And that fact itself gives them competitive advantages.
People already know what Apple creates, how Apple products look like, and who is KIRF-ing.

Sure, they were the first manufacturer that actually created a tablet that looks like prototypes/concept designs that were introduced long before in movies and tv shows.

Just because they did so first, Apple claims that they should have exclusive control over the design and the trend.

WTF?

Hey a Tablet is still a Tablet. Looking good Tablet is one thing, and the other manufacturers can follow the good looking tablet design cues and that creates a tablet design trend.

and let's be honest.

Apple INVENTED NO SHIT. A Patent right is for protecting Innovations.
What Apple wanted to protect from their design is their trademark.
And Apple should've registered their design as a trademark which would be much more reluctantly give preliminary injunctions for infringements.

and a great loss for consumers. and thinking again what Apple did with iOS5's notification system, oh and think again what invention means in dictionary.

You should really stop playing that 'Apple copied the iOS5 notification system from xyz' crap, because it's really a stupid poor man's excuse for anything. There is nothing special about the iOS 5 notification system, but there wasn't anything special about it when every other phone or desktop OS implemented it before. I have had Linux distro's from 1999 on my PC that have a notification tray that works exactly the same. Android copied it from someone, WebOS did, WM did, and so on and so forth.

The only thing you can say about the iOS 5 notification system is that it was long overdue, and Apple really should have improved iOS notfications long ago, but they screwed up there. That's it. Fortunately there's a million other things in iOS that are a million times better than they are in Android, which have always compensated for the crappy notification system by a large margin.

Obsessively trying to point out how Android already had notifications sorted out long ago makes it look like Android must otherwise be extremely crappy, if the best you can come up with is 'OMFG iOS now has a feature that works just like Android, Apple is copying Android'. Doesn't Android have any other strong points where it beats iOS or have all the advantages it ever had been sorted out and we can leave the platform to die now?

1)Great. Samsung backstabbed Apple. Apple is Samsungs biggest customer with about 8 billion in sales. Is that enough for Samsung? No. They use the same parts that they fab to Apple to put into their own copied design.

2) Samsung knows that they have done a patent infringement. Why would they otherwise sing a licensing deal with Microsoft about Android. Just like almost all other Android OEMs Samsung pays a protection tax to MSFT.

3) I can't wait for the big showdown. Now that Google made the stupid mistake by buying Motorola Mobile, Apple can finally sue Google about Android.

All this could have been solved easily:
Samsung could have licensed or design its own GUI for its products.
Android could have used licensed Unix instead of "free" Linux
Samsung should have respected its largest customer.

No one is complaining about WebOS. Palm at least tried to innovate.
Android in other hand is a flawed system. Google have so far almost spent 20 billion on a "free" system. Instead of buying things: try to build your own. It would have been much cheaper.

And Google. Please stop lying about the market share. The "activation" bull that analyst believes is just misleading. Who cares if 30% of all shipped Tablets are Android. We want to know how many that are sold. Who cares that 130+ million Android phones have been activated, since the same phone is activated 2-10 times during its lifetime. Just tell us how many phone have been sold.

The best? selling Android phone (and the best Android phone) Galaxy 2 have sold 3 million. I will laugh all day when Apple sells as many Iphone4s in between 1 day-7days depending on how fast Apple can ship the phones.

Isn't it strange that all web traffic data gives Android such a low market share? They should be much bigger then iOS, but they aren't. (but Fandroids will say its because no Android user use the default browser. I understand that now since Android 2.3 browser just support 1 core. Why have dual core phones when your operating system can't handle it? Fandroid: Just wait until 4.0. Then everything will be multithreaded. O and Apple copied message center!!!!)

and Samsung didn't do a 360 (I'm sure you meant 180) they made a thinner model to compete with the iPad...why is that wrong?

why is it that now that Apple is the market leader any company adapting their model and products to better compete with Apple is "STEALING" ?

First people are shocked Android changed it's looks (not it's function btw as it could always work on full touch devices even while it look blackberryish) to compete with the iPhone despite all the signs that that was the future of smartphones

And now people are shocked when people use the age old rounded rectangle design when they make tablets (or phones)

It's crazy.

PS. the Galaxy Tab wasn't banned in Australia due to looking like anything...there were 2 software patents it violated...so your argument is flawed from the start

The picture you provide is just evidence for Apple.

Every single Tablet before Apple had a stylus. I think you know that Samsung does not use stylus on their tablets.

Apple releases a tablet without Stylus. Somehow all competitors decide to do the same.

The multitouch/touch patent is something that Apple have. Just build your beloved Samsung's without these features, and there would not be a problem. (beside all the patent infringements that Linux have. But Apple does not care about that. Other companies will sue for that)

1)Great. Samsung backstabbed Apple. Apple is Samsungs biggest customer with about 8 billion in sales. Is that enough for Samsung? No. They use the same parts that they fab to Apple to put into their own copied design.

2) Samsung knows that they have done a patent infringement. Why would they otherwise sing a licensing deal with Microsoft about Android. Just like almost all other Android OEMs Samsung pays a protection tax to MSFT.

3) I can't wait for the big showdown. Now that Google made the stupid mistake by buying Motorola Mobile, Apple can finally sue Google about Android.

All this could have been solved easily:
Samsung could have licensed or design its own GUI for its products.
Android could have used licensed Unix instead of "free" Linux
Samsung should have respected its largest customer.

No one is complaining about WebOS. Palm at least tried to innovate.
Android in other hand is a flawed system. Google have so far almost spent 20 billion on a "free" system. Instead of buying things: try to build your own. It would have been much cheaper.

And Google. Please stop lying about the market share. The "activation" bull that analyst believes is just misleading. Who cares if 30% of all shipped Tablets are Android. We want to know how many that are sold. Who cares that 130+ million Android phones have been activated, since the same phone is activated 2-10 times during its lifetime. Just tell us how many phone have been sold.

The best? selling Android phone (and the best Android phone) Galaxy 2 have sold 3 million. I will laugh all day when Apple sells as many Iphone4s in between 1 day-7days depending on how fast Apple can ship the phones.

Isn't it strange that all web traffic data gives Android such a low market share? They should be much bigger then iOS, but they aren't. (but Fandroids will say its because no Android user use the default browser. I understand that now since Android 2.3 browser just support 1 core. Why have dual core phones when your operating system can't handle it? Fandroid: Just wait until 4.0. Then everything will be multithreaded. O and Apple copied message center!!!!)